Falls just short of greatness

Rating: 7/10 (14 July 2013)

With its neon cityscapes and giant robot battles, 'Pacific Rim' really does evoke the mecha genre of anime while also calling to mind every Godzilla movie you've ever seen to the tenth power. It's filled to bursting with great ideas, concepts and images, but a rather weak cast (besides Idris Elba, who owns in everything he's in) and poorly fleshed out characters didn't allow it to resonate like I hoped it would.
Characters died, I shrugged. Cities were leveled, I shrugged. It's a dazzling film, but I never once laughed or teared up. It never made the hair on the back of my neck stand up or quicken my pulse. In short; I wasn't moved. For much of its 130 minute running time it felt like watching someone else playing a video game (though certainly playing it well). There's simply too much here that's good not to recommend, but for me the whole was less than the sum of its parts.